'46 THE EGYPTIAN NEOPHRON. 



connects the more typical vultures with the genus Gypaetus,. 

 leading immediately to the Falconidce, represented by that 

 powerful and daring species Vultur Barbatus, or bearded 

 vulture. In these genera a deviation of structure is perceptible, 

 which serves not only to complete the circle of their own family, 

 but to connect it with those belonging to the other order of the 

 class. Its habits are very similar to those of the American 

 Gatharte, as it rejects no dead animal matter, delighting even in 

 the most putrid carrion. On this account it is held in deserved 

 respect, and protected by the inhabitants of those countries in 

 which it abounds as an able coadjutor in clearing away the filth 

 and putrid matter which, in climates so hot, would otherwise 

 become pestilential. It occasionally preys upon lizards and 

 other reptiles, but is rarely known to attack the smaller living 

 quadrupeds or birds. It is also of a more timid and cowardly 

 nature — destitute of the boldness that characterises the larger 

 and more typical vultures. But it possesses great power of 

 flight, from the wings being very long and ample. The 

 tail is equally long and wedge-shaped, which enables it to 

 soar in circles with great buoyancy. And, doubtless, as in the 

 rest of the tribe, it is in their serial flights that it spies its food 

 below. Its cry is seldom heard, and when at rest it sits upon 

 the ground with the wings drooping — a habit common to the 

 Vulturidae. 



Very little information is to be had in the works of 

 Continental naturalists with regard to the habits of this species. 

 Temnick says that they are numerous on the Spanish side of 

 the Pyrenees, in Malta and Turkey, sometimes in Italy, and as 

 far as Switzerland, but nowhere so abundant as in Africa, and 

 they breed in those precipices which are the most difficult of 

 access. A recent egg-collector says — " Two nests of this species 

 were found in the vicinity of Aries, on the Pyrenees, each of 

 which had two eggs. The next summer a third nest was found 

 on the Pie de St Loup, near Montpelier, which had in it only 

 one egg." But he omits to say whether or not the egg was deep 

 sitten or the bird only in course of laying. 



Mr Wolley (another egg-collector) got eggs of this species 

 from a dealer in eggs, when on a visit to Tangier, who assured 

 him that the old bird was shot on the nest of one of them. The 

 dealer said that it makes its nest at the end of March, in the 

 crevices and caves of rocks — usually in an inaccessible per- 

 pendicular cliff; that it lays in April one or two eggs, which 

 are hatched about the end of May — the young remain in their 



